Category 2: Bad Neighbor

The second category, Kamin says, is the “bad neighbor designs." These project the message: "Attempt to climb me and die!!"

Take, for instance, the nuclear waste wall.

Nuclear waste wall

Credit:

Clayton Industries

Clayton Industries wants to build a wall with a series of barriers to deter illegal border crossers. There’s a chain-link fence, sensor panels, a railroad, a 30-foot-high wall and then … wait for it … a 100-foot-deep trench with nuclear waste at the bottom.

"It essentially sends the message: 'Hey immigrants from Mexico and Central America. If you want to try to take a risk and find a better life in the United States, take your kid through a nuclear waste dump.' That’s what we’re talking about,” says Kamin.

Category 3: The Fortress

“The fortress design is quite straightforward,” says Kamin. And there's no better example of this than the Great Wall of China rip-off.

Great Wall of China rip-off

Credit:

Crisis Resolution Security Services

The Crisis Resolution Security Services design might look familiar. It has a castellated top, a pedestrian walkway, and supposedly it could double as a tourist attraction.

Category 4: Can't We All Just Get Along?

The "can't we all just get along" designs are “more whimsical” says Kamin. These designs are intended more as cultural commentary than an actual plan.

Case-in-point: JM Design Studio's hammock and pipe organ walls.

Hammock wall

Credit:

J.M Design Studio

One sketch from this group of women artists shows 3 million hammocks strung across the border, suspended between 30-foot-tall trees. Another design has a wall of 10 million pipe organs, with openings every 20 feet allowing for people to pass through.

“I don’t think the Department of Homeland Security is going to go for that one,” Kamin says.

The next step is for the government to select finalists. They will be announced in June. About 10 companies will be chosen to build prototypes of their designs in San Diego.

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